


saves us

by Anxiety_Elemental



Series: McGenji Week 2019 [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-08 20:22:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19875541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxiety_Elemental/pseuds/Anxiety_Elemental
Summary: Genji is always quiet during their appointments, never speaking unless she asks him a direct question. She can’t tell if it’s because he’s embarrassed or uncomfortable or angry or something else. Could be one or all of those things. She doesn’t think Genji would be honest with her if she asked.Prompt: Proving them wrong





	saves us

**Author's Note:**

> Let Mercy Take A Nap 2k19
> 
> Warnings include cyborg angst and (vaguely worded) medical procedures.

_In conclusion, Genji’s continued unwillingness to cooperate means therapy will continue to be ineffective. It is recommended that he be reevaluated, and given alternate or increased medication. No further appointments have been scheduled. He has not been cleared for combat._

Angela stares at the psychologist’s report on her tablet again, skimming through the pages, making sure she catches all the important details. The report doesn’t surprise her, it doesn’t take a professional to know Genji is struggling. He only tolerates her, she suspects, because he has to interact with her so much.

She has only a vague idea of what he was like before Overwatch, her only concrete knowledge of the man he used to be is the old medical records Overwatch recovered for her use. Only a small part of someone he used to be, so radically changed, and not just in the reconstruction of his body.

Much of it her fault.

She wonders if she made the right choices. If her team made the right choices. If this or that compromise or design or word would have made any difference.

But she’s not a psychologist, she reminds herself, closing the document. It’s not her responsibility.

She needs to keep reminding herself.

It doesn’t make her feel any better.

\---

Genji is always quiet during their appointments, never speaking unless she asks him a direct question. She can’t tell if it’s because he’s embarrassed or uncomfortable or angry or something else. Could be one or all of those things. She doesn’t think Genji would be honest with her if she asked.

Genji is hooked up to Angela’s computer system by the cables in the back of his head, recharging his internal systems and feeding her computer diagnostic data about the state of his body. She’s working on a better diagnostic method, one that doesn’t involve leaving long wires exposed, where they could be tugged or damaged. She needs to improve his internal power cells too, so he doesn’t need to recharge as often. She’s working on it. There’s a lot she’s working on.

Today the tests she needs to run are simple calibrations, double checking that his latest upgrades are operating as intended. She checks the mobility in his limbs, the sensitivity in his mechanical hand and feet, inspects his eyes and tests his hearing. Any questions she asks receives simple, monosyllabic answers.

“I read your therapist’s report,” she tells him, against her better judgment.

Genji doesn’t move or say anything, though she knows he heard her.

“Is there a reason you don’t want to talk to them?” she asks.

“It is pointless,” Genji says.

“Why is that?” Angela asks anyway.

“I do not see how _feelings_ enter into consideration,” Genji says, and she shrinks at the flash of anger in his voice, “I am the weapon Overwatch needs me to be. Is that not the point?”

“It’s not,” she says, but the words sound fake even to hear ears.

He scoffs, and doesn’t say anything else.

He’s not wrong, says some bitter part of herself. Those were the instructions she was given, once he’d agreed to join Overwatch. Weaponize him. Adapt the design of his cybernetics to best enable him to work as an agent, play to his strengths as an assassin. This was not the career she wanted when she joined Overwatch. Seems to be a running theme.

That gives her an idea, a spark of hope, but she will have to wait until Genji’s appointment is over. She finishes running through the tests she needs to cover, and Genji doesn’t so much as look at her.

She’s going to prove him wrong.

\---

She knocks on the door to McCree’s room, and the door slides open, McCree clearly surprised to see her.

“Do you have a moment?” she asks, “I would like to talk to you.”

McCree’s eyes look panicked, “It’s nothing medical,” she adds quickly, “And it won’t be long.”

“Don’t make me any less worried,” he says, but he stands aside to let her in.

She steps inside. She can smell cigarette smoke, but since she needs a favor she stamps down the impulse to chastise him about it, this time anyway, “I wanted to talk to you about Genji,” she says, as soon as the door slides shut behind her.

McCree's expression is completely mystified, “Genji? What about him?”

“I know this is an unusual request,” Angela says, “But could you try spending some time with him? Outside of any training you may have, that is.”

McCree blinks, then grins at her, “What, setting up a playdate?”

“No,” Angela frowns, “I thought that since you both had uneasy recruitments to Blackwatch, you might have common ground.”

McCree’s smile shrivels, “Uneasy is putting it mildly.”

“I know,” Angela says, with a stressed sigh.

“And Reyes already told me we’re gonna work together.”

“Then you should listen to him,” Angela says.

“Look,” Jesse begins, uneasy, “The only time we’ve really talked was when I was undercover, and I didn’t exactly make the best first impression. I don’t think I’m the one to talk to him.”

Angela didn’t know they'd met before this. Her resolve wavers, is this really the best way to help Genji? But she’s not sure what else she can do for him.

“What makes you think I’m the one to talk to him anyway?” Jesse asks.

“You have a lot in common, I think,” Angela says, and decides it’s time to bring out her secret weapon, “And he reminds me of you when you first joined. Do you remember when you had your first physical with me, and you - ”

“Okay, okay, I got it,” Jesse says quickly, and Angela could spot an embarrassed blush on his face, “I’ll go talk to him, but if he cuts off my arm or something you gotta patch me up, and I get to say I told you so.”

“Deal,” Angela says.

\---

Genji’s next appointment a month later is much the same as all the others.

“How’re you doing today?” she asks, as she always does when she starts hooking him up to the diagnostic computer.

Usually Genji replies to this question with a flat, untrue ‘fine’, but this time he gives her a suspicious side glare.

“Did you speak to McCree?” he asks.

Angela keeps her eyes on the tablet in her hands, “Why do you ask that?”

Genji doesn’t answer, but this silence seems thoughtful, rather than simmering, which seems like an improvement, “He has been... annoying. Since my last visit.”

“I’m sure I have no idea why that would be,” she says, but anxiety is gnawing at her lungs, “Is he causing a problem? Would it help if I talked to him for you?”

"Hm," Genji returns to staring at his knees.

She hasn’t always done right by her patient, she hopes this wasn’t a mistake either.


End file.
